Wednesday, December 10, 2003
I don't see how this is ever going to work. The North Koreans know that their last ace-in-the-hole to prevent having their regime dismantled is their nuclear program. Why would they ever give it up completely as long as there's a scrap of soylent green for the regime bigwigs to keep themselves alive on?
U.S. Rejects New N. Korea Offer on Nukes
The North's terms amounted to a response to a plan offered a day earlier by the United States, Japan and South Korea (news - web sites) for ending the standoff over the communist state's nuclear weapons program.
Bush's statement, and similar remarks by White House and State Department spokesmen, appeared part of jockeying for position in advance of another round of talks with North Korea. The impoverished North has often tried to use the nuclear confrontation as a means to win economic aid and diplomatic recognition.
While Washington and its allies have sought the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs, Tuesday's proposal from Pyongyang offered only to "freeze" them as a first step. The North added, however, that the long-term goal is to "de-nuclearize the Korean peninsula."
"The goal of the United States is not for a freeze of the nuclear program," Bush said. "The goal is to dismantle a nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible way."
"That," he said, "is the clear message we are sending to the North Koreans."[...]
Update: In related news, NYT: Report Says China is Returning Refugees to North Korea.
